Working with Drupal as a user is not the same as working as a Drupal developer. If you know Drupal well enough that you’re not flailing around trying to figure out how to do things—if you actually know the framework and you build sites with it regularly—it’s remarkably pleasant from a code perspective. The main problem with Drupal is the learning curve. It’s much easier to get started writing, say, a Laravel app. But for the narrow case where you need a heavy-duty content management system with features like multilingual and robust cache integration, and you’re willing to put in the time learning it, Drupal is not a miserable experience. It’s actually good software.